Christopher McDougall

author of Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes

“The Barefoot Running, Hill-Attacking Life of the Fittest Guy in Hollywood.”

What intrigued me about this excerpt from the cover story of this month’s Men’s Journal is Jake Gyllenhaal’s perceptive insight that the best way to get inside your head is through your body.

Jake believes he can “sit with himself” while he’s running. “It’s not: ‘I’m having a shitty day and I’m going to go for a run,’ but ‘I’m having a shitty day and I’m going for a run and I’m going to try to work out what’s going on.’ Not just get my serotonin levels up and feel good. I’m going to think about things. And the only way you can do that is to slow the pace down.”